5 On-Page SEO Factors That Will Boost Your Small Business Rankings
On-page seo for small businesses in colorado
If you know the basics of SEO, you already know that choosing the right keywords and key phrases is critical. However, SEO goes much deeper than just the keywords, especially if you want to increase your website traffic and grow your audience.
There are not one but four main components of SEO:
Technical SEO - The behind-the-scenes code and content that makes your website easier for search engines to crawl and index.
On-Page SEO - The content on the front- and back end of your website that helps search engines can find it.
Off-Page SEO - The content outside your website that helps improve its search engine rankings (i.e., social media, backlinks).
Local SEO - Tactics to help your business be more visible in local search results.
And while each of the above components is critical to getting your website recognized by search engines, many parts of those components are sometimes overlooked and forgotten.
In this blog post, I dive into on-page SEO, which can be easiest to incorporate with a little extra time and effort. Here are the five on-page SEO factors that will boost your small business rankings and how to incorporate them into your website:
1. ALT Text
ALT text, also commonly referred to as ALT tags, ALT descriptions, or ALT attributes, are detailed descriptions of the photos and images on your website. Although their primary purpose is to help the blind and visually impaired "see" images by providing screen readers with an accurate description to read back to them, they are also a vital part of your on-page SEO.
When written correctly, ALT text will include valuable context about the image search engines and crawlers can pick up when analyzing your site. Not incorporating them in your images can have a huge impact (and a not-so-good one) on your SEO.
ALT text is also important for a positive user experience on your website in that they provide information about what should be in a photo in case the images fail to load.
How do you write good ALT text?
Although ALT text is important to SEO, the last thing you want to do is write solely for that reason. Doing so could inadvertently result in keyword stuffing and hurt your SEO. Instead, your primary purpose should be to write them as they were originally intended: To help users understand the context of an image. Keep them short, sweet, and descriptive, using no more than a couple of keywords.
2. Image Descriptions
Similar to ALT text, image descriptions provide users with information about the images on your website. However, while ALT text is short and sweet, image descriptions are much more detailed, telling the story behind the photo. Since they are more than just a few words long, you have more of an opportunity to include keywords that improve your on-page SEO.
And despite the term "image" descriptions, it isn't limited to just photos. You can use image descriptions to define anything that contains visual information on your site, including graphics, videos, and gifs. You can also find them anywhere on the site, including the body of the text, captions, or sometimes in the ALT text itself.
How do you write a good image description?
While there is no ONE way to write an image description, the primary goals are to be objective and detailed yet concise. Remember that you are writing for your audience! You want to capture what is important in the image in a complete sentence without assuming they know or understand what is happening. If there is any text in the photo, you will want to include that text in the description. Also, avoid acronyms and spell out any abbreviations.
3. Page Titles and URLs
Your page title tells your visitors and search engines what they can find on that page. They are an essential part of your on-page SEO and, when appropriately named, can help boost your small business page rankings. Likewise, your page URLs are an integral part of SEO. They help to create consistency in your site's hierarchy and are another opportunity to include your site keywords.
What makes a good page title and URL?
A good page title is concise (60 characters or less is best), relevant, and engaging. It should reflect the topic you are talking about and contain the main keywords you selected for your site. The goal is to entice readers to visit your page while also being straightforward enough for search engines to understand where to place it in the search engines. Remember to include your brand! Example:
Colorado Small Business SEO Basics - LMR Consulting Blog
Your URLs should be as clear and concise as the page's title and preferably contain the same words. For example, you would write an "About Us" page URL as "https://www.mywebsite.com/about-us." The simpler your URL, the easier it is for web users to remember it!
4. Internal Links
Internal links are those that link to other relevant pages on your website. It is another essential on-page SEO factor, as they keep users on your website longer. The longer they stay on your page, the more it tells Google it is relevant and increases the chance of your site being crawled, indexed, and placed higher in the search engine results.
What makes a good internal link?
The best internal links are the ones that naturally connect one page on your website to another. The link will be directly relevant to the content you are sharing and naturally flow within the sentence in which you are sharing it.
For example, if I am writing about how to create great content and have other pages on my website that talk about this topic, I will want to embed the link to those other pages within one of the sentences, just as I did above.
5. Meta Tags
Lastly, meta tags are perhaps THE most important factor in on-page SEO. It has four different components:
Meta Title - The text in search engine results and browser tags that describe the page contents to users and search engines.
Meta Description - The brief page summary that appears when you do a Google search.
Meta Keywords - Located in the HTML coding of the page, it is the description of the keywords and their relevance.
Meta Robots Tag - The text in the HTML coding of the page that tells search engine robots how to crawl, index, and display its content.
How do you write good meta tags?
When it comes to meta keywords and meta robots tags, unless you know about HTML and coding a website, it is best to leave it to the web development professionals. However, meta titles and tags are a little simpler now that you know what they are.
A good meta title is similar to your page title: Short (no more than 60 characters), clear about your page content, concise, and engaging. A good meta description is no more than 160 characters, includes your focus keyword or keyphrase, is interesting, is unique, and has a call to action. Here's an example:
Meta Title: Small Business On-Page SEO | Marketing in Breckenridge, CO | LMR Consulting
Meta Description: Learn 5 On-Page SEO basics from a marketing consultant for small businesses in Breckenridge, CO to help boost your website rankings.
As you can see, on-page SEO isn't something to take lightly if you want search engines to favor your content. And while you can do many of these things on your own, some components will require the assistance of a professional whose skills are dedicated solely to that topic. To see how LMR Consulting can help you improve your small business SEO, contact us to set up a free 30-minute consultation.
